As demand for e-cigarettes picks up steam across North Texas, many cities are debating to what extent they should regulate their sale and use — or if they should at all.

E-cigarettes are devices that imitate the sensation of smoking. The liquid or “juice” heated to produce water vapor doesn’t contain tobacco but may include nicotine. It comes in flavors like vanilla, menthol and apple pie.

The federal government has yet to enact rules for the industry. So without national guidelines, some cities in North Texas are creating their own.

Richardson now requires a special permit for e-cigarette businesses. Mansfield ordained a six-month moratorium on new e-cigarette shops until it can get more information.

In Murphy, officials have banned the possession and sale of e-cigarettes to minors. But Rockwall leaders considering a similar measure questioned whether it was enforceable or appropriate.

“How do we regulate things like caffeine, then?” City Council member Jim Pruitt said at a recent meeting. “Are we going to get in where we don’t want kids in coffee shops?”

The city of Dallas toughened its smoking ordinance in 2008, but its code compliance department doesn’t have specific rules related to e-cigarettes.

Effects on kids

Some worry that the new trend is luring children and exposing them to nicotine, an addictive substance. The number of high school students who have tried e-cigarettes grew from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 10 percent the following year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Several school districts in the Dallas area — including Richardson, Plano, Allen, McKinney, Frisco, Rockwall and Mesquite — have already penciled in language that explicitly prohibits e-cigarettes on campus. Dallas ISD currently has no policy on e-cigarettes.

E-cigarette advocates like Mark Matherne of Mansfield say the devices have helped them stub out a harmful dependence on traditional cigarettes.

“For 23 years I smoked cigarettes, and in one day, I quit,” Matherne told the Mansfield City Council in October. He said he wants to wean himself off e-cigarettes, too.

The Food and Drug Administration intends to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products. A proposed rule that has yet to be released to the public is under review at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Current research suggests e-cigarettes are less toxic than traditional cigarettes, but they can contain harmful substances. Scientists have said that more research is needed to assess their long-term health effects.

Texas doesn’t define e-cigarettes in its cigarette tax statute.

Growing popularity

E-cigarettes became readily available in the U.S. in 2006, but their popularity is more recent. In Richardson, nine e-cigarette establishments opened during an eight-week span this fall.

That activity drew the attention of city leaders.

“When they start proliferating at this pace, they start pushing out other retail that we want to see,” City Council member Steve Mitchell said at an October meeting.

Through the special permit process, the council can individually review the proposed locations of these shops and lounges. The policy doesn’t apply to convenience stores or pharmacies that include e-cigarettes in their inventories.

“It doesn’t make sense to regulate it because the marketplace will dictate if it’s going to survive or not,” he said.

Khraish pulled a small bottle of peaches-and-cream e-cigarette liquid from a shelf and pointed to the label. Besides nicotine, the ingredients are propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin and artificial and natural flavors, three additives used in the food industry.

Mojo Vape doesn’t sell e-cigarettes to people under 18, Khraish said. But some parents who’ve caught their children smoking regular cigarettes come into the store. The parents buy flavors without nicotine for their children, Khraish said.

“The kids are feeling cool, and they’re not smoking cigarettes,” he said. “They’re not hiding anymore.”

Rockwall debate

In Rockwall, the issue has sparked intense debate on the City Council.

Scott Milder told his fellow council members that he sent his 14-year-old son to a Rockwall e-cigarette shop after he heard the store was selling nicotine flavors to minors. The boy bought gummy bear-flavored liquid with nicotine without being questioned about his age, Milder said.

Now Milder wants to ban e-cigarette products to minors and require specific use permits for those businesses.

“I’m an advocate for free enterprise and limited government, but I happen to be a bigger advocate for my kids,” he said at a Dec. 2 meeting.

Council member David White didn’t buy Milder’s argument.

“The parent takes responsibility for the kid,” White said. “The government is not a replacement for a good parent, or even a mediocre parent.”

Rockwall officials plan to continue the discussion in January.

In Murphy, council members agreed e-cigarettes shouldn’t be sold to children. But they stopped short of adopting other standards that would have treated e-cigarettes as traditional cigarettes.

At a recent council meeting, City Manager James Fisher said it’s uncertain what e-cigarette shops can do when the city doesn’t have a definition for what they sell.

“It can be a gray area,” he said. “I don’t like gray areas. They get ugly.”

AT A GLANCE: Cities’ approaches

This is how some cities in North Texas are handling e-cigarettes:

Mansfield: Placed a six-month moratorium on permits for nontraditional smoking-related businesses to give city staff time to craft policy recommendations.

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